Chinese neuroscience firms tap brain's electrical activity in a rapidly growing industry

Technology is rapidly moving into the field of tapping into the electrical activity of the human brain to provide medical assistance to people suffering from paralysis, memory loss, Parkinson's disease and other neurological disorders.

It's called "brain-computer interface" (BCI), and China is emerging as a leading player in finding commercial applications for the neuroscience, despite a relatively late start in the field.

The applications today don't quite measure up yet to cyberpunk sci-fi images of learning English or mathematics via electrode feeds, but the development of devices that can be controlled by thought opens the door to many applications, both medical and non-medical.

It's a bioscience field that is exciting for researchers, companies and investors.

This week, the Beijing-based Chinese Institute for Brain Research and state-owned technology company NeuCyber NeuroTech announced the implantation of their Beinao No. 1 brain chip into three patients, with plans for 10 more procedures this year.

These are all "investigator-initiated trials," according to Luo Minmin, institute director NeuCyber's chief scientist, adding 50 procedures are planned for next year.

Also this week, the central Chinese province of Hubei released the country's first pricing guideline for BCI, which sets a limit on the cost of "invasive" implants at 6,552 yuan (US$902) per procedure, with removal costing 3,139 yuan. "Non-invasive" procedures are capped at 966 yuan.

"Setting prices paves the way for clinical applications of this frontier technology, which is just turning from laboratory to clinical trials," Bell Chen, an angel investor and co-founder of Hangzhou-based B&T Capital, told Shanghai Daily.

"It gives a clear signal to those in the industry's supply chain, as well as to investors, that it is going to be market-oriented and commercialized," Chen said.

"Invasive" technologies involve surgeries to implant electrodes or other signal recording devices into specific brain areas. "Non-invasive" methods collect brain signals with electrodes placed outside on the scalp. There is also a category of partially, or minimally invasive, like implanting via blood vessels.

Perhaps one of the older, successful applications in this branch of science is the cochlear implant used for people with impaired hearing. Developed in the 1960s, it bypasses by the damaged part of the ear to process sound waves into electrical signals sent to the brain.

The brain, of course, is a complex organ not fully understood. Brain-computer interface systems tap into the way our brains function.

The brain is filled with neurons, the individual nerve cells connected to one another. Every time we think, move, feel or remember something, our neurons are at work. That work is carried out by small electric signals that zip from neuron to neuron as fast as 250 miles per hour. It is those electric signals that underpin BCI research.

Many people may have first become aware of the potential of BCI last year when Elon Musk's Neuralink company first implanted a "mind-reading" chip in the brain of a paralyzed man in the US.

This year, Neuralink plans to implant its revolutionary Blindsight chip in the first human patient. The device aims to restore eyesight to people who have lost both eyes and optic nerves.

Investors are taking note of rapid advances in this field and the fact that China is entering the neuroscience field with vigor.

BCI-related firms in China have secured investment totaling 430 million yuan this year in at least four financing deals. The figure includes an industry record-setting 350 million yuan in funding raised by Shanghai-based StairMed Technology Co in February.

That Series B funding was led by Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMed and Lilly Asia Ventures, a subsidiary of the US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

Privately owned StairMed, founded in 2021, takes an invasive approach and claims to outperform Musk's Neuralink in certain areas. Most Chinese companies take a non-invasive or interventional approach, resembling that of US firm Synchron, which is backed by tech billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and has implanted 10 patients.

Shortly after Neuralink announced its first human implant last year, China released guidelines of non-binding principles for ethical conduct in BCI research, under the subcommittee of the Technology Ethics Commission.

The guidelines categorize BCI technologies by level of invasiveness and urge "moderation" in the adoption of the technology – particularly in the case of "augmentative BCI," which is applied to enhance the abilities of healthy people rather than those suffering disease or disability.

A second NeuCyber product called Beinao No. 2 uses invasive technology that, implanted in monkeys, showed the ability to control bionic arms. Luo said the technology will hopefully be applied to the first human patient next year.

NeuCyber and StairMed aren't the only Chinese firms showing with technological breakthroughs and ambitious plans in BCI application.

Work by Shanghai-based firm Neuracle and Tsinghua University's biomedical engineering team in Beijing, led by Professor Hong Bo, reported positive results from three patients implanted with the project's "neural electronic opportunity" technology.

Hong has said he sees the implants being extended across China to between in 30 and 50 patients suffering spinal cord injuries,by the end of this year. That rate would put Hong's team, and NeuCyber ahead of their US counterparts in terms of human trials.

According to Chinese corporate data platform Qichacha, 359 patents related to BCI technologies were issued in China last year, taking the total to 1,311 in the last five years.

Those who registered patents include tech giants like Huawei, which recently registered a patent entitled "Method for Controlling a Stimulator, Brain-Computer Interface System and Chip."

In March, Huawei reportedly set up a new medical and health-care team to accelerate its expansion in the AI-fueled medical sector.

Most of China's BCI-related firms are startups founded in the last five years, mainly in Shanghai, Beijing and the southern province of Guangdong.

In January, Shanghai released a five-year plan for BCI technology, setting goals such as the completion of clinical trials on at least five semi-invasive and invasive implants by 2027.

Shanghai-based NeuroXess, which was founded by a tech entrepreneur and a leading BCI scientist in 2021, collaborated with Shanghai Huashan Hospital last year to implant a 256-channel, high-throughput, flexible BCI device into the brain of a 21-year-old woman suffering epilepsy.

Two days after the operation, she was able to play some computer games by "thinking" of moves and was able to "mind-control" mobile apps like WeChat after two weeks.

"There is no hierarchy among invasive, non-invasive or interventional technologies for BCI. It's decided by the application scenario," Tao Hu, the firm's founder told Chinese media last year.

Tao said the company could register for Class III medical devices as soon as in three years.

Medical devices registration falls in three categories in China. Class III covers those deemed to be of the highest risk and requires strict regulation and monitoring.

"We are seeing an opportunity now, especially in applications for brain-damage diseases that were previously untreatable," Tao said in a recent interview with The Paper, a leading Shanghai-based news portal. "My estimate is that we will see BCI technologies playing key roles in the treatment of some brain-damage diseases in the next three to five years."